Health care organizations, such as hospitals, clinics, and offices, have computer networks which allow the transfer of digital medical images from one location to another. An exemplary medical imaging network may include digital radiography devices, a Picture Archive and Communication System (PACS) device, a Computed Radiography (CR) device, an Ultrasound device, a Computed Tomography (CT) device, a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) device, a Nuclear Medicine (NM) device, a Digital Radiography (DR) device, a mammography device, an angiography device, a Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scanning device, or other digital imaging devices. This list of medical imaging devices is merely illustrative and not exhaustive. Also installed on the medical imaging network is a multi-media printer which produces or creates print jobs generated by a print client on the medical imaging devices. The multi-media printer allows printing on film-based media along with printing on paper media. Medical professionals, in many cases, are still familiar with a wet-film process where an image is exposed on film and the film is processed to provide a display. Therefore, the multi-media printers produce images which have a similar appearance and function to the images produced by the wet-film process.
The multi-media printer may include a combination of printing technologies. The printing technologies include, laser-toner, laser-photothermographic, ink-jet, direct thermal, or dye-diffusion printing technologies. This list is merely illustrative and not exhaustive. In direct thermal printing, media having a thermal responsive surface is brought into contact with the printhead and translated over the printhead. When the media is translated over the printhead, thermal elements on a linear array are selectively heated to form pixels on the media which correspond to pixels in the desired image. In the dye-diffusion process, a donor ribbon and receiver media are translated together over the printhead, the donor ribbon being between the printhead and the receiver media. While the donor ribbon and receiver media are translated over the printhead, the individual thermal elements on the linear array are selectively heated to transfer dye from the donor ribbon to the receiver media to form pixels corresponding to pixels in a desired image.
The multi-media printers are capable of printing on a variety of media types, e.g., paper and film, and also on a variety of media sizes, e.g., A-size, A4-size, 8×10 inch, 11×14 inch, 10×14 inch, 11×17 inch, and 14×17 inch. Multi-media printers also are capable of supporting color-specific media and grayscale-specific media of a given type, i.e., color paper and grayscale paper. The plurality of options available for each incoming print job requires a method to be established within the multi-media printer for selecting a specific media for each incoming print job. When dye-diffusion printing technologies are utilized, the multi-media printer is capable of printing on media sizes 8×10 inch, 11×17 inch, A, and A4. If direct thermal print technologies are utilized, the multi-media printer is capable of printing on all of the above-mentioned media sizes.
Traditionally, media-type and/or media size attributes are specified in parameters included within a print job. A print job is transmitted to the multi-media printer utilizing a communication mechanism. The communication mechanism includes a physical layer, an optional transport layer, and an optional application layer. The physical layer protocols may include, but are not limited to, Ethernet, Token Ring, Universal Serial Bus, Parallel (Centronics, etc.), Fiber Optic, and Wireless technologies (802.11, and other WiFi technologies). The transport layer protocols may include, but are not limited to, TCP/IP, AppleTalk™, and raw binary. The application layer protocols include, but are not limited to, FTP, LPR, Printer Access Protocol (PAP), DICOM, and SMB, which is a Microsoft Windows™ network protocol.
The print job could be comprised of PostScript commands and data. Alternatively, the print job may include DICOM Information Object Descriptions (IODs) and data. Alternatively, the print job may just include image data in various file formats such as TIFF, GIF, JPEG, PNG, etc. In another alternative, the print job may include EP Raster commands and data, a Codonics specific format. In another alternative, a print job includes VMF/FMF control commands, also a Codonics specific format.
The print job includes job parameters, sheet parameters, and image parameters. The print parameters specifies how the print job is printed at the multi-media imager. Job parameters may include, but are not limited to, media type, media size, receive tray, and priority. Sheet parameters may include, but are not limited to, background, border fill, captions, coverage, Dmax (maximum optical density), Dmin (minimum optical density), film view, image warnings, and look up tables (LUTs). Image parameters may include, but are not limited to, antialias, contrast enhancement, gamma correction, medical color management, polarity, rotate, saturation, and scaling.
For example, a print job utilizing the PostScript protocol may include a job parameter known as “Paper Size” to indicate the media size for the print job, and another job parameter known as “Paper Source” to indirectly indicate the media type. Illustratively, a print job transmitted utilizing the Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) print protocol may include a print job parameter known as “Film Size ID”, indicating the media size for the submitted print job, and another print job parameter known as “Medium Type” indicating the media type for the submitted print job.
A print client is the device that submits the print job to the multi-media printer. The print client may be resident within a medical imaging device or a computing device. The multi-media printer has a plurality of media size and media type values available to be utilized in creating images or prints based on the submitted print jobs. Under certain operating conditions, the print client may submit print jobs including job parameters, such as media type and media size, that are supported by the multi-media printer. The print client may select these job media selection parameters utilizing menus in a graphical user interface, or alternatively, via parameters in a configuration file located on the medical imaging device or the computing device.
Under other operating conditions, the print client may not have the capability to submit jobs to utilize all of the plurality of media type and media size job parameters. Under other operating conditions, the print client may not submit media type or media size print parameters at all. For example, in the DICOM protocol, “Film Size ID” and “Medium Type” are optional parameters, which the print client may or may not utilize. Other print job submission protocols, such as Line Printer Remote (LPR) or File Transfer Protocol (FTP), do not define methods for media selection parameters at all. Under these operating conditions, the multi-media printer may receive no job parameters for media size and media type or only partial job parameters, i.e., only one of media size and media type job parameters.
In response to these operating conditions, the multi-media printer may reject the print job as being incomplete or in error, meaning that no media is selected by the multi-media printer for the print job. In many cases, this is not a useful result for the print client.
Another alternative in responding to these operating conditions is to default to the currently loaded media. This option is also not desirable because multiple media types or media sizes may be loaded, or the multi-media printer may be out of media. This alternative also requires that the user verify that the proper media is loaded prior to submitting the print job. This can be very inconvenient if a networked multi-media printer is not proximate to the print client system that submitted the print job.
Another alternative in responding to these operating conditions is to utilize a predetermined nonconfigurable default that is used when the previously mentioned media selections methods fail. This guarantees that the print job is queued, however, the submitting print client has no method for selecting or changing the default media setting. In addition, the networked imaging system may not allow the altering or changing of the media selections at all or may require altering the media selections through the use of a diagnostic function or an administrative function that the user may not have access to. Both of these options make it impossible, or at least inconvenient, for the print client user to change or modify the media selection for the submitted print jobs
Under other operating conditions, the print client, whether it is resident on a computing device or a medical imaging device, may not be allowed to select all of the possible media selection options that are available or configured at the multi-media printer. For example, media sizes A and A4 are generally desktop publishing sizes which medical imaging devices do not normally support. Accordingly, many medical imaging devices may not support the selection of media sizes A and A4 because they typically utilize media with sizes of 8×10, 11×14, or 14×17 inches.
Therefore, it may be desirable for a user, e.g., a print client, to have the capability of establishing a variety of media settings when the print media selection parameters cannot be explicitly or directly controlled by the print client specifying media selection parameters by the print client in a print job, e.g., using application parameters. It may be desirable for the multi-media printer to be able to utilize existing information in the communication between the print client (resident in the medical imaging device or the computing device) and the multi-media printer, e.g., such as network identity address, a TCP port number, a modality, or a text attribute. Illustratively, the text attribute may include a print client username, a print client host IP name, a DICOM application entity (AE) title, a source file name, a destination file name, a destination directory name, a password, a queue name, a logical device name, an AppleTalk™ ID, or any free form text attribute field not normally intended to specify media selection. The list of free form text attributes is illustrative and not exhaustive.